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ALTERNATIVE BELIEFS

Text for dictation:______

Conventional beliefs are the ones which most people share, but alternative beliefs are usually held by minorities.

Among the most common alternative beliefs are those involving mediums and clairvoyants.

Mediums claim to have psychic powers and extra sensory perception. They invite people to special meetings called seances where they demonstrate their ability to talk to the dead and convey their messages to the living.

Clairvoyants claim to foresee events and have been known to offer their services both to famous politicians and members of royal families. There are many biblical examples of fortune-telling including premonitions such as Joseph's dream. Cynics maintain that accurate predictions result from the laws of probability and do not provide proof of special powers.



  1. Get a good English speaker to dictate the text giving you a second reading with pauses so that you can write it down.
  2. Afterwards you can look at the above text to check your spelling.
  3. Next, using a red pen, put a small vertical mark high up before each stressed syllable in the text.
  4. Now click here to check that you have marked the correct syllables as the stressed ones.
  5. Finally, read the text aloud, taking care to stress the "stressed syllables" and not to stress the "weak" syllables.